News

HASC Strategic Forces Mark

5/23/2013

AFA Caption

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The House Armed Services Committee's strategic forces
panel, in its mark-up of the Pentagon's Fiscal 2014 budget request, provides
funding for the missile defense strategy announced by Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel in March to
bolster US defenses against ballistic missile attack, according to a summary of
the mark. The panel's May 22 mark also directs the National Nuclear Security
Administration to "annually certify" the security of the nuclear
weapons stockpile. In the space domain, the mark reforms "DOD's business
process with commercial satellite companies, ensuring that strategic
competitors do not gain inadvertent access to vital systems or information."
It requires "improved information sharing" on "adversary counterspace
actions against US national security space systems," states the summary.
It protects "certain missile defense
technology and continues congressional oversight of US-Russia missile defense
cooperation," and it supports missile defense cooperation with Israel. (Strategic
forces mark; caution; large-sized file.)